raro

Forms

raro (feminine rara, masculine plural rari, feminine plural rare, superlative rarissimo)^[1] Northern dialects have a popular form: Piedmontese rair, and rrairu at Nicosia, a Gallo-Italic colony in Sicily.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin rārus (“loose, sparse, rare”).^[4][5][6][1] The popular form of the same Latin word, with dissimilation, is rado “sparse, thin”, its doublet.^[4][7][1] DELI notes that Dante used the Latinism only in verse, and that Latin also gave the derivative rāritās (whence rarità) and the compound rārēfaciō (whence rarefare).^[4][5]

The Latin word continues in Romanian rar, Sardinian raru and Friulian rar, and was taken over again as French rare, Catalan rar, Spanish raro and Portuguese raro.^[3][5] Spanish also has the inherited ralo.^[3][8]

The origin of the Latin adjective, the opposite of dēnsus, is unclear.^[9][4] Nocentini compares the Slavic word for “rare” and Lithuanian ardýti (“to take apart”), from a root meaning “to separate”.^[5][10] De Vaan finds the link with a root meaning “to disappear” semantically weak, and notes that Schrijver rejects both that and the comparison with Ancient Greek ἐρῆμος (erêmos, “lonely”) on formal grounds.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, who says that a joy which is rare is held more precious: the sense “singular, precious because uncommon”.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses raro for “not often” and “not dense”, and in the plural as the opposite of “many”.^[4] The physical sense “of loose texture, not dense” was current in natural philosophy: Dante's Paradiso explains the spots on the moon by corpi rari e densi, and Galileo still speaks of il denso e ’l raro.^[12][13] Today this sense is uncommon, and rado is used instead.^[7][14]

The sense “seldom found” is recorded in Guicciardini, before 1540, and “occurring few times in a period” in 1835.^[4] Chemistry gave gas raro (noble gas) and terre rare (rare earths), and medicine polso raro, a slow pulse.^[6][15] The adverbial raro “rarely” survives in the proverb presto e bene raro avviene.^[6][7]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses raro “precious because uncommon”.^[4]
• End of the 13th century – the adverb raramente is recorded in the Scala dei Claustrali.^[4]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses rarità.^[4]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo da Vinci uses rarefazione.^[4]
• Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses raro for “seldom found”.^[4]
• 1835 – the sense “occurring few times in a period” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. rare, seldom found or met, uncommon (più unico che raro, extremely rare): Un fungo così è raro in pianura.^[6][7][13]
2. Occurring seldom, infrequent (polso raro, a slow pulse): Le sue telefonate si fanno sempre più rare.^[6][7][15]
3. Precious because uncommon: un francobollo raro.^[6][7][13]
4. Exceptional, outstanding: una donna di rara intelligenza.^[6][13][15]
5. (chemistry) In gas raro (noble gas) and terre rare (rare earths).^[13][15][16]
6. (uncommon) Sparse, thin, not dense, the same as rado.^[6][7][13]

Noun

1. (archaic) Rarity, thinness; something rare: il grande e il raro (Leopardi).^[6][13][16]

Adverb

1. (archaic) Rarely: presto e bene raro avviene.^[6][7][16]

Word family

• raramente
• rarità
• rarefare
• rarefazione
• rarezza
• rarificare

Related words

• rado
• Latin rārus
• French rare

Usage notes

Bestia rara is a person thought odd or out of the common, and raro come le mosche bianche means “very rare”.^[15][14][13] Raro and rado are the learned and the popular form of one Latin word: rado is the usual word for “sparse” and in di rado “seldom”.^[7][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3209
3. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 496
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli